Mahāyana Buddhism

Japanese: 大乗仏教 - だいじょうぶっきょう（英語表記）Mahāyāna Buddhism

One of the two major schools of Buddhism that arose around the 1st century. This sect expanded and added new interpretations to the ancient teachings of the Buddha, and called its own position Mahayana Buddhism, in the sense that it was a great vehicle that would carry many people to the ideal world of the other shore, not for the sake of enlightenment for itself alone. The earlier primitive Buddhism, which was centered on the tradition of the words and deeds of Shakyamuni, and the conservative sect that focused on the commentary study of Shakyamuni's law, were disparagingly called Hinayana Buddhism, but this is inappropriate, so today they are called Theravada Buddhism, Hinayana Buddhism, etc. This traditional Hinayana Buddhism spread to the south, such as Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Burma (now Myanmar), and Thailand, while Mahayana Buddhism spread to the north, such as Tibet, China, and Japan, and continues to exist to this day.
Mahayana Buddhism and Hinayana Buddhism have different understandings of the essence of Buddha and the ideals that Buddhists aim for. Hinayana Buddhism has traditionally regarded Shakyamuni, or the Buddha, as the true teacher, while Mahayana Buddhism regards Buddha as a being who has been liberated from the mundane world, and interprets Shakyamuni as a temporary form of this transcendent heavenly being who appears on earth. From the Mahayana perspective, the arhat that Hinayana sects aim for is only a limited goal for oneself, and the ideal that all Buddhists should aim for is the bodhisattva, that is, a person who serves others even above attaining enlightenment. Therefore, the virtue of the bodhisattva, compassion, is the same as the virtue of knowledge that ancient Buddhism has strongly advocated. The advantage of this bodhisattva idea is its flexibility, which makes it easily adaptable to others, and the concept has been passed down to the Pure Land Buddhism practiced in China and Japan. Other Mahayana sects that are still in existence today include Zen, Nichiren, and Tendai. Mahayana Buddhist scriptures are primarily written in Sanskrit, but some originals have been lost and only Tibetan or Chinese translations remain.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

1世紀頃に興った仏教の二大流派の一つ。古来の仏陀の教えを拡大し新しい解釈を加えた教派で，自分ひとりの悟りのためではなく，多くの人々を理想世界である彼岸に運ぶ大きなすぐれた乗物という意味で，みずからの立場を大乗仏教と呼んだ。それ以前の釈迦の言行の伝承を中心とした原始仏教ならびに釈迦の法の注釈的研究を主とする保守派をいわゆる小乗仏教と貶称したが，これは適当でないので，上座部仏教，部派仏教などと今日では呼ばれている。この伝統的な部派仏教がセイロン (現スリランカ) ，ビルマ (現ミャンマー) ，タイなど南方に伝播したのに対し，大乗仏教はチベット，中国，日本など北方へ伝わり今日にいたっている。
大乗仏教と部派仏教では，仏陀の本質のとらえ方と，仏教徒として目指す理想が異なる。部派は古来より釈迦すなわち仏陀を真実の師とするのに対し，大乗は仏陀を俗界を解脱した存在であるとして，釈迦はその超絶した天上の存在が地上に現れた仮の姿であると解釈する。大乗からみれば，部派の目指す羅漢は限られた己の目標にすぎず，すべての仏教徒が目指すべき理想は，菩薩すなわち己の悟りを開くのをおいても利他のために奉仕する姿である。したがって，菩薩の徳である憐れみこそ，古来の仏教が強く説いてきた知の徳と同じものであるとする。このような菩薩思想の利点は他に受入れられやすい柔軟性であり，その概念は中国と日本で信仰される浄土教にも伝わっている。今日に伝わるそのほかの大乗派としては，禅宗，日蓮宗，天台宗がある。大乗仏教の経典はおもにサンスクリット語で記されているが，原典が失われチベット語訳や中国語訳のみが伝わるものもある。

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